London transit & BRT

I haven't covered the transit debate in London as closely as others, so this won't be a comprehensive look at the issue.  I mainly wanted to make a few points.

I've seen, primarily on social media but also in the Free Press, that many people in London seem to believe that the city always delays on proposals and doesn't show any urgency on anything.  The latest issue was the 1960's debate about building a ring road or at least a highway extending from Highbury to the northern area of the city.  Two points about this.  One, a ring road would not have been a good idea for the city.  Second, and more important, the notion that London cannot agree to build something is ridiculous.  In the last ten or 15 years, the city has built the downtown arena, Covent Garden Market, and the cargo expansion at the airport, among many other projects.  Fanshawe College downtown (a project I don't think deserved municipal funding) is under construction.  Several condo towers are under construction or in the planning stages, downtown and in the suburbs.  And, really, transit construction in other cities is as slow and divisive as in London.  Phase 2 of the Second Avenue subway extension in New York City was recently completed at the astounding cost of $4.5 billion after decades of planning.  Toronto has debated an extension of its subway into Scarborough for years.  There isn't anything uniquely horrible about transit in London.  The central problem about transit in the city is that employment and education are spread widely throughout the city, leaving no obvious corridors connecting residences and employers.

The challenging thing about transit is that everyone generally argues for their second best (or worse) option, because their preferred solution is simply impossible.  Given the traffic flow in London, I might argue for a line connecting major employers and institutions, including Masonville, the university, University Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital, Victoria Hospital and Fanshawe College, i.e. cutting out Wellington Road to White Oaks Mall and an Oxford West line.  And extend bus service to the new industrial employers in the southeast.  (Well, actually, my preferred solution would be congestion charges and road tolls, which haven't yet become palatable here.)  But of course suburbanites (of which I am one) wouldn't support this.